


bubblegum trash

by gothyringwald



Series: state of the heart (harringrove tumblr fic) [15]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Attempt at Humor, Christmas, Established Relationship, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Headcanon, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-17 20:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16981374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothyringwald/pseuds/gothyringwald
Summary: A collection of extended headcanons/not!fic/dot point style fic(let)s, originally posted on tumblr.(Chapter one is an index)





	1. index

**Author's Note:**

> I always thought I 'shouldn't' post this stuff on AO3 because it wasn't 'good' enough, but AO3 is a place for ALL the fandom work so...here we go.
> 
> Title from the Crocodiles song of the same name. Chapter one is an index.

### chapter two: the one with the nap partners

**655 words, G**

More of an extended headcanon kinda thing about Steve and Billy being nap partners a la Joey and Ross.

### chapter three: home

**2239 words, T**

So, this started out as a what-if about Billy’s mother and ended up as...whatever this is...POV changes around. A mix of gen and Steve/Billy, I guess.

### chapter four: when i get that feeling

**694 words, T**

a summary/not!fic? for wow and flutter part 2

### chapter five: jingles and candy cane

**552 words, T**

a borderline crack-y thing about steve and billy getting jobs as santa's elves at the mall


	2. the one with the nap partners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so, for some reason, one episode of friends i think about a lot is the one with the nap partners. and then i started thinking…

So, Billy is tentatively one of the gang, now, and knows about the Upside Down, etc. He and Steve are, well, they’re friends, which is weird, but it’s probably not as weird as monsters from another dimension, or whatever. He and Steve hang out, sometimes just the two of them, because they’re friends and that’s what friends do.

Right, so, they’re hanging out, watching the game or something, and they’re both tired (from monster business or studying or something) and before they know it they’ve dozed off. Together.

Billy wakes up first, and it takes him a few moments to realise what’s happened. But, as weird as it is, he can’t help but smile at the weight of Steve snoozing on his chest, the warmth of him. And, Billy can’t deny, he hasn’t slept that well in ages. It’s only when Steve wakes up that it gets awkward. 

Steve smacks his lips sleepily, burrowing into Billy’s chest a moment before he sits bolt upright.

‘What the hell?’ His eyes are wide and his hair is flat on one side, sticking up on the other.

‘Guess we fell asleep,’ says Billy, itching to reach out and smooth Steve’s hair. He doesn’t.

‘Uh, yeah,’ says Steve, attempting to tame his hair and sitting back. ‘You want a beer? I could do with a beer,’ he says, standing, and before Billy has the chance to answer he’s hightailed it out of the living room.

—

The thing is, as much as Billy liked napping with Steve, having Steve curled up against him, close to him, the way his shirt smelt like Steve for days after, it’s clear it freaked Steve out. That’s fine. They’re still friends, Billy is OK with friends. But Billy just hasn’t slept as well as he had that afternoon napping with Steve on his sofa since then. So, Billy formulates a plan, because now that he’s known the blissful sleep that he can apparently only achieve when curled up with Harrington? Well, he just wants to experience it again.

(He never thought any plans to get Steve to  _sleep with him_  would be  _literal_  and not euphemistic but, whatever.) In the end it’s not so much a plan as it is haranguing Steve (in a friendly way) until he caves in and admits that, yeah, OK, the nap was pretty awesome. And it’s not like Steve gets much sleep, either, so, OK, maybe they could try napping together again. Which they do.

And it’s awkward, at first, because Steve is weirded out by the whole thing, and Billy is maybe a little too eager, but they eventually relax enough to fall asleep. And the nap? It’s just as awesome as the first time (even if Steve does drool on Billy’s favourite t-shirt and Steve’s arm falls asleep where it’s awkwardly tucked between them).

If anyone wonders, the next time they’re all together, why the dark smudges under Steve’s eyes aren’t so dark and why Billy seems even more soft around the edges, no one says anything. They probably don’t connect it, they’re probably just glad that they’re doing better.

The second time they nap together on purpose it’s a little less awkward, and Steve provides blankets and soft pillows. The third time Billy brings his own favourite pillow and he worries Steve might think it’s dumb but, to his relief, Steve doesn’t say anything. And, then, it just becomes a thing they do, like watching the game, or going to the movies, or drinking beer at the quarry. Billy thinks that maybe it means more to him than it does to Steve but, frankly, he’ll take what he can get.

And that’s the story of how Billy and Steve became nap buddies. (And probably woke up more than once in an, uh, even more compromising position until they decided to stop ignoring it and just  _go for it_. but that, my friends, is another story.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://gothyringwald.tumblr.com/post/170704368065/the-one-with-the-nap-partners)


	3. home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, this started out as a what-if about Billy’s mother and ended up as...whatever this is...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (The POV changes around a bit—it wasn't meant to be read as a 'proper' fic but more just a stream of thoughts I guess)

When Billy is twelve his mom leaves.

Billy wakes up in the middle of the night, to the sound of shouting. It’s not the first time—his parents fight a lot—but this is so much louder than usual. He walks out to the living room and sees his mom crying, his dad red-faced.

‘What’s wrong?’ Billy says.

His dad turns. ‘Go back to bed,’ he says just as his mom steps toward him, arms outstretched. 'Neil, _please,_ ' she says. Neil steps in between them. ‘Go back to bed, Billy,’ he repeats and Billy gives his mom one last nervous look—something’s really wrong but he’s tired and he doesn’t want to make his dad angry, because his dad works hard, his mom said, and they should be nice to him—and so he goes back to bed. If he knew, he would have stayed. 

‘She’s left,’ Neil says, from behind his newspaper, the next morning when Billy asks where his mom is. She usually has his breakfast ready, by the time he gets up (his dad hates that, says Billy is old enough to make his own breakfast) but his spot at the table is bare, today.

‘What...what do you mean?’ Billy asks, nearly dropping the milk, but he knows, somehow. His mom won’t be making him breakfast again.

Billy doesn’t have any reason _not_ to believe his dad (not yet) so when he says that his mom left because it was too hard being Billy’s mother—I can’t blame her, look at you, you’re lucky I didn’t leave, too—that’s what Billy believes.

But it’s not the truth. It wasn’t hard to be Billy’s mother. Billy was the only good thing to come out of her marriage to Neil. Being a mother wasn’t  _easy_ , sure, at times, but being Billy’s mother was a fucking blessing. Being Neil’s wife? Well, it would probably have killed her eventually and so she had to leave. And she tried to take Billy with her, she fought  _so hard_  to have Billy with her, but she was scared and Neil is strong and there was no safe time for them both to leave, together—she shouldn’t have tried to leave in the middle of the night, what was she thinking?—and so she left without Billy.

And nothing,  _nothing_  had been harder in her life than that but if she stayed she just feels it, in her gut, that she wouldn’t have survived, one way or another, and what good would she be to Billy that way? After, she promises herself she’ll go back for him but Neil is not only strong he has the law on his side, in the end, and she’s cut off from her baby boy, her  _beautiful boy_ , forever. She tries to see him at school but they won’t let her in, and she can’t ever go back to the house. And she has no friends or family to help her get Billy back.

In the first six months she thinks staying and dying would have been better than this.

Billy wishes his mother were dead, too, sometimes.

Neil had never been a kind father, always snapping at Billy, rarely a pleasant word to say. But after Billy’s mother leaves he becomes downright cruel. First with words. Then with fists. By the time Neil remarries, and Billy gets a brand new family, his hatred of his mother, his father, himself has curdled into a bitter ball of anger. He takes it out on his new stepsister, sometimes, especially when they move away from home to some shitty town in fucking Indiana. (And he hates how scared Max looks and hates how he doesn't know how to stop).

And then there is Steve Harrington. Steve. Fucking. Harrington.

Billy hates him, too, at first, because Steve makes Billy feel all the things he doesn’t want to. He goads Steve, nearly fucking kills him, that night, but, against all odds, they get together. Eventually. Inevitably.

He tells Steve about his dad. It's the first time he's told anyone. He doesn't tell Steve about his mom, at first, but when he does, when he tells him why his mom left, he says, ‘She didn’t want to be a mom anymore’ but Steve hears ‘She didn’t want to be  _my_  mom, anymore’.

And Steve hates this woman, then, for leaving Billy, for leaving Billy  _with Neil_. Who would do that? He doesn’t tell Billy he hates his mom for leaving Billy, he just holds him tight and says, ‘I’m not going to leave you,’ even though Billy hadn’t said 'Don't leave', or anything like it. Steve had heard that beneath his words, too.

When she first leaves, she writes Billy letters every week. She doesn’t think he’s ever going to get them, Neil wouldn't stand for that, she's sure, but on the off chance he might, she _has_ to send them. Eventually, though, the letters start coming back marked ‘no longer at this address’ and she wonders if she will ever see Billy again. If she made the biggest mistake of her life when she walked out on Neil Hargrove.

One day, years after she's given up on seeing her son, again, she runs into an old family friend who had always been sympathetic, suspicious of Neil, but never enough to do anything about it. She tells her that Neil married, again, moved to Indiana, somewhere. She has the address at home, she thinks, and hope blooms, once more.

Billy finds the letter in March. He doesn't recognise the handwriting, wonders who could be writing him from California. When he sees the signature his stomach drops. When he reads the rest of the letter, he's glad he's sitting down.If Billy thought that finding out monsters were real, that there were kids with psychic abilities, and they were right here in Hawkins, turned his world upside down, it’s  _nothing_  compared to what his mother’s letter does.

Everything he thought about her was wrong. All these years. She never left  _him_ , she left Neil, and Neil wouldn’t let her see him. She’s never stopped trying to find Billy, trying to get him back. She still wants him to come back home to her, if he wants to. Home, Billy thinks. Is home in California, still? Or is Hawkins becoming home, despite everything? Or is home something he might never have?

Billy doesn’t know what to do, so he shows Steve the letter. Things between them are still new, but they’ve been good. So good. Just when he finds a reason to stay in Indiana, California calls stronger than ever. Billy still hates Hawkins but he thinks he might love Steve Harrington. And how can he leave that?

Steve reads the letter quietly and then hands it back to Billy.

Steve tells him to go. 

(After graduation, I’ll come to California. We’ll be together. I promise. But this is your  _mom_ , Billy. I know you want to go, you know it, too.)

So, Billy moves back to California.

His mom is there at the bus station, waiting for him. Billy had been worried he wouldn’t recognise her, or she wouldn’t recognise him, but they make eye contact as soon as he steps off of the bus and Billy feels like he’s in a fucking movie. Time slows and all that shit and he just stands there staring at her. She’s so beautiful, he thinks, and then, what if she hates me now? Why did I come?

But the other passengers are banking up behind him and they’re getting annoyed so he snaps himself out of it and moves over to her. She’s trying not to cry, Billy can tell, and she hugs him. It’s a little awkward because Billy isn’t used to being hugged (except by Steve, sometimes) and she might be his mom but he doesn’t  _know her_. But he hugs her back, tight, and for a long time. Eventually they pull away, both of them sporting damp eyes, and his mom says ‘let’s go home,’ and so they do.

It’s surreal, she thinks, to have her boy back. Finally. She keeps finding excuses to touch him, just to make sure he’s real—tucking his tag in, straightening his shirt, smoothing back his hair. Her baby, home, at last. It’s hard living together, at first, because she hasn’t had to be a mother for so long (she was always a mother, of course, but it’s different when your child is there than when he’s not) and when she  _was_  Billy was younger and softer and it was easier to love him. And then she feels guilty for ever thinking her son could be hard to love.

But he is, sometimes, and she doesn’t know what to do because he isn’t the little boy she remembers, but he’s still her beautiful son and she thought she’d be done crying herself to sleep, now that he’s here with her, again, but some nights she cries harder than she ever had when he wasn't there. She cries when Billy yells at her, not because she’s scared (Billy looks more scared, after, of himself) but because she sees Neil in him, then and it breaks her heart. She cries the hardest when Billy breaks down and tells her how Neil treated him and why didn’t she try harder? All those years—surely she could have found a way, before now, to bring him home? 

And Billy is still so angry all the time. He’s angry at Neil for lying, for everything he did to Billy. He’s angry at Steve for telling him to go. He’s angry at his mother, for leaving, still, even though he knows now it wasn’t her fault and she’d tried so hard for so long to get to Billy. And he’s angry at himself for  _everything_. When he yells at his mom, hands shaking, he feels so sick. He doesn’t want to scare her, like Neil did, doesn’t want to give her a reason to leave, again. So, some days, he doesn’t say anything to her at all. 

She doesn’t know how to bridge the silence on those days and lord knows she has her own baggage and isn’t always easy to live with, either.

But they get there. So slowly. One step forward, two steps back.

California doesn’t quite feel like home, the way Billy thought it would, and he thinks it’s because of the boy he left behind in Hawkins. But he can breathe better, easier, than he has been able to in  _years_.

He tells his mom about Steve two weeks after he moves back. He's so nervous he doesn't eat all day. When he finally tells her—there's a boy, in Hawkins. His name is Steve. I think I love him?—she just smiles and kisses his forehead and says she's happy for him and of course Steve can stay here, with them, for as long as they want. Billy says 'thanks, Mom,' and wipes at his eyes and they sit there, by each other, for the rest of the night.

Billy doesn’t really expect Steve to make good on his promise to come out to California after graduation. They write, they talk on the phone sometimes, and Steve never wavers.But, still, Billy doesn’t believe it. He doesn’t believe it when Steve says he sold his car for a plane ticket, he doesn’t believe it when Steve tells him the flight number and what time he gets in, he doesn’t believe it when he drives to the airport, his mom in the passenger seat sending him sympathetic glances, he doesn’t believe it when he parks and walks in, waits at the gate, heart in his throat. Somehow, he doesn’t even believe it when Steve is there, in front of him, duffle bag clutched in front of him.

It’s only when his mom steps forward and says, ‘You must be Steve’, and is pulling Steve into a hug that Billy believes it. Believes that Steve is here, this is real. His mom releases Steve, whose cheeks have gone all pink, and then Billy steps forward. He goes in for a hug but Steve sticks out his hand, looking around nervously at everyone else there, and there’s an awkward moment before they end up in each other’s arms.

‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ Billy says.

‘I said I would be,’ Steve says, and then, ‘I missed you.’

‘Me too,’ says Billy and then he pulls away. ‘Come on, let’s go home.’

Billy’s hands are shaking too much to drive, so his mom gently takes his keys and tells him to sit in the back, with Steve, so he does. Steve doesn't look out the window, once, even though he's never been to California. 'I live here, now, I can see California any time,' he says, when Billy comments on it. 'I haven't seen you in forever.' Billy blushes and his mom smiles and Steve holds his hand the whole drive home.

The three of them live in Billy’s mom’s tiny two bedroom apartment—Mr Phillips, in 3B gives Steve and Billy _looks_ but his mom gives him looks back and he soon stops—and Billy works at a garage, and his mom sells handmade jewellery and Steve gets a job waiting tables. It's cramped and it takes some getting used to and it's not easy but, for the first time, since he was twelve, Billy has a  _home_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't my go-to/favourite headcanon for Billy's mum but it was one possibility I'd thought of. Will link original post later.


	4. when i get that feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Notes from original post on tumblr)
> 
> so, i'd planned to write a follow up to my first ever harringrove fic, [wow and flutter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12883599) (where billy makes steve a mixtape), but then i kind of lost interest and i can't see me picking up interest, again. this is basically what would have happened, though (more fluff, and billy making fun of steve's taste in music, essentially):

Steve wants to return Billy's gesture and make him a mixtape, too, but as he sits surrounded by a sea of discarded records and cassettes he starts to think he really does have shit taste in music. He's never cared, before. He listened to what his friends listened to, what was on the popular radio stations, some songs from the latest movie it was cool to go see. whatever. It wasn't a big deal. but, now, it's presenting a problem. 

He considers, briefly, asking Jonathan for help because Jonathan  _knows_  music. But he only entertains it briefly. Not only is the thought of asking his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend for help making a mixtape for his  _own_ new boyfriend (boyfriend? maybe?) mortifying on its own, but Jonathan is kind of a music snob and Steve doesn't want to be subjected to some kind of lecture on the state of pop music or whatever. And Nancy would probably be there, too, and wonder who Steve is making the tape for and Steve would be too obvious and Nancy is too clever and he doesn't want her, want  _anyone_  to know, about him and Billy. Not yet.

No, he has to do it alone. Easier said than done. But his mom comes along when he's desperately resorted to flicking through his parents' record collection and asks what he's up to. When he says he's making a tape her face lights up and she offers to help. (Apparently she was 'pretty groovy' in her day). Seems like she's having one of her 'I'm going to be the kind of parent who takes an active interest in their child's life' days. It would have to be today, of all days. It doesn't last long, though. She makes some suggestions ('Mom, I'm not putting Frankie Avalon on the tape. I don't even know who that is...') and tells Steve some anecdotes (he really never needed to know which song he was conceived to. Gross) before his dad comes along and reminds her they have a dinner party to go to and she's back to absent mom. So Steve is, once again, left to his own devices.

Miserable, he raids his dad's liquor cabinet and after a whiskey, or two, things seem brighter. He's  _got this_. He manages to fill the tape, scrawling the titles on the insert, but in the morning, when he wakes with a hangover, clutching the tape in his hand, and reads the list of songs he put on it, he decides to give up, entirely. It's not worth the ribbing he knows Billy would give him. So, he hides the tape away and forgets about the whole thing.

But the next time Billy is over, he finds it (he's a snoopy bastard) and, seeing his name on it, sticks it in the stereo before Steve can stop him. Billy teases him over his song choices, like Steve knew he would, but it's not until  _S_ _exual Healing_  comes on that Billy completely loses his shit. He doesn't even say anything, just collapses into a fit of laughter. Any other time, Steve would appreciate it because this kind of head-thrown-back belly laugh is  _rare_ from Billy. But it's not so enjoyable when he's being laughed  _at._

'It was my mom's record,' Steve mumbles. 

'Because that's better?' Billy manages to gasp out.

'I was drunk!' Steve thwacks Billy with a pillow. 'Stop laughing at me, asshole. I was trying to do something nice.'

Billy does stop laughing then. 'Aww, I'm sorry,' he says but his lips are sill twitching. 'Thank-you. I like it.' His voice breaks on a poorly concealed giggle.

'No, you don't.' Steve crosses his arms, scowling. 'I don't even like it.'

Billy wraps his arms around Steve's waist, kissing his neck. Steve starts to relax into it until Billy says, 'I need some lovin'', laughing again as Steve pulls away, and adding, 'because I'm hot just like an oven.'

'Shut up!' 

'Come on, I've got  _that feeling_ ,' Billy says waggling his eyebrows.

'I hate you,' Steve says but lets Billy pull him down onto the bed, anyway. It does help to relieve the mind, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm slowly slowly getting there with uploading these. But I write a lot of posts on tumblr without capital letters and, even though I'm not changing anything else about these fic-things, I just don't feel comfortable posting them like that here so I have to go through and fix it all before I can post them XD
> 
> Please feel free to point out if I've missed anything in my fixing up.
> 
> Also, I was going to post these in the order that I posted them on tumblr but I guess that doesn't matter too much...


	5. jingles and candy cane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I don't really have another fic in me this year but I got this idea of Steve working as one of Santa's elves—partly from the prompts candy cane and bell for the 12 days of Christmas and partly because of a plush elf I have that I inexplicably named Steven many years ago—and so have this kinda almost cracky headcanon thing:

Over Christmas, Steve gets a job as one of Santa's elves at the mall. He didn't think anything could be  _less_ dignified than the Scoops Ahoy uniform but it turns out he was wrong.

And it gets even worse when, on the first day, he turns up and who else is there but Billy Hargrove. He doesn't look nearly as ridiculous as he should, Steve thinks mournfully, once he gets over the shock of seeing Billy wearing _tights_. (They have shorts to go over them—though they're kinda short and, uh, snug—but he's still wearing tights and OK Steve is wearing the same thing but _Billy Hargrove is wearing tights_. And he _still_   looks hot.)

Speaking of tights, Steve must have been given the wrong size because they're clinging in all the wrong places and let's just say he's glad of the shorts to wear over them.

'Got a problem?' Billy says arching a brow as Steve squirms.

'The tights are...' Steve trails off, knowing if he finishes that sentence, Billy will say _something_ rude. Or lewd.

'What?'

Steve swallows. 'Too tight,' is what he settles on.

Billy, mercifully, doesn't say anything but he does leer and shove a candy cane in his mouth (which he spends far too long sucking on for Steve's liking).

To Steve's dismay, they end up sharing most of their shifts. Billy enjoys bossing the kids around and turns out to be the surliest—and most foul-mouthed—Santa's elf ever. Steve just wants to make it through Christmas with what's left of his dignity intact and without getting barfed on. (He manages the latter, but only barely).

They have to wear name tags, of course, but not of their own names—of their _elf_ names. One day, Steve grabs the wrong one (he's usually Snowball) and he doesn't realise until a sticky-handed child pulls it off and he finally looks at it when he pins it back again.

He groans because Snowballwas bad enough but Candy Cane? And then Billy turns up for his shift before Steve can grab the right name tag and his eyes light up.

'Candy Cane!' he crows. 'I bet you're as sweet as a candy cane,' he adds with a wink. 'Do you taste like peppermint?'

'Fuck off, Jingles,' Steve grumps, face hot, earning him an unimpressed look from the woman at the head of the line. The worst thing is Billy never _stops_ calling him Candy Cane, even when Steve wears his own badge again. And he's always winking and _strutting_ and tweaking the bell on Steve's hat.

'Stop flicking my bell,' Steve says, one day near the end of the season, adjusting his hat and batting Billy's hand away.

'Don't be like that,' Billy says around the candy cane in the corner of his mouth, 'I'd let you ring _my_ bell, any time, Candy Cane.'

'Oh my god,' Steve says and then something occurs to him. He realises what Billy's been doing this whole time. Ever since they met, really. 'Are you flirting with me?'

'Always.' Billy winks.

'No, I mean for real.'

'Ding ding ding, we have a winner, folks,' Billy says as he reaches out and jingles Steve's bell. 

'Well, fuck,' Steve says and then he finds out that Billy's the one who tastes like peppermint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a picture to go with it but I can't be bothered fussing with external hosting right now (and I'm not a great artist—because I'm too lazy to practice ;D) but you can see it [here at pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/356717) if you like! :) I might put it on tumblr. I'm not sure.


	6. when billy met steve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this ask:
> 
> So... Could you do a headcanon post on a Harringrove 80s enemies-to-lovers rom com setting? :)
> 
> My answer:  
> omg thank you, anon! you’re so sweet to send this <333 also, are you my brain twin? because this is like…perfectly suited to me. anyway, i tried to do something that was all my own idea (and it’s not exactly enemies to lovers) but i keep getting stuck on…
> 
>  
> 
> [Originally posted here](http://gothyringwald.tumblr.com/post/180569405407/so-could-you-do-a-headcanon-post-on-a)

They meet just after graduating college when Steve needs someone to drive with him to LA. Steve's roommate Tommy says one of his friends, Billy Hargrove—'The one with the spectacular ass,' Carol provides when Steve can't remember if they'd met (they hadn't)—is moving back out to LA and, well, it seems like a great idea.

Steve should have known it was a terrible idea. Billy is obnoxious, he has shitty taste in music, his jeans are way tighter than is necessary and he eats most of Steve's snacks (not to mention uses the entire can of hairspray he keeps stashed in the glove compartment) and Steve is so relieved when they get to la and can go their separate ways. Steve to his job as a sports reporter and Billy to…do whatever he's going to do. Steve doesn't care. At all.

Three years later Steve is flying back home and guess who's sitting next to him? Billy fucking Hargrove. Turns out, he just gets more obnoxious with age. And being stuck on a plane with him is so much worse than being in a car. At least Steve could stop the car. He wishes he'd brought earplugs because Billy also never stops talking. Keeps telling Steve everything he's done in the past three years, making fun of every one of Steve's life choices (except he seems mildly impressed that he's a sports reporter) and Steve nearly weeps with joy when they land and he doesn't have to see Billy again.

Of course then they meet at a sportsball game that Steve is reporting on another two years later. Billy seems to have mellowed a little, this time, and they get drinks after the game and…they get on really well. And then getting drinks is just a thing they do. Soon, they're best friends and, wow, that's weird but it's nice.

Steve enjoys Billy's company and Billy's there for him through his huge breakup with Nancy as well as a series of minor, yet equally disastrous, breakups with other women. Billy never talks about his own girlfriends and Steve figures he's just playing the field. Doesn't think anything of it. but it's nice to have a best friend. Someone who's always got his back.

When Billy comes out to Steve it sends him reeling because he just had no idea—Billy is his best friend and he never even had a clue—but it makes something slide into place (in his head? Heart?) And, oh fuck. Oh no. Is he—? He's attracted to Billy.

So he does the only thing he can do—ignores his feelings and sets Billy up with a buddy of his from work. It ends up as a double date, with Billy bringing a neighbour he'd befriended. She's really sweet and she's pretty but Steve just doesn't click with her. Steve's buddy from work on the other hand? Hits it off with her! Which…well, it's just about where his love life is, really.

After another date that goes nowhere, Steve comes home to a wedding invite from Nancy and Jonathan. He's happy for them but it brings up all the old hurt from when it hadn't worked out for he and Nancy. He calls Billy in the middle of the night and is like 'it's me, i'm unloveable!' So Billy brings over some beer and listens to Steve pour his heart out. Again. Except it ends up less nursing a heartbreak and more oops we had sex.

And…it's pretty damn good sex even though Steve has never done it with a guy. But it's Billy and it just makes sense. Of course, it makes less sense in the morning when a good night's sleep leads to overthinking and _what does it all mean_ and Steve freaks out and Billy doesn't which…is not what Steve expected. He also doesn't expect Billy to give him a disappointed look and just leave. So that's…great.

There's several months of not talking to each other and it's awful and it's stupid and Steve just wants his best friend back. Except maybe they haven't been just friends for a while. So he goes to Billy and tells him he misses him and he's in love with him. Billy dismisses him at first—tells Steve he's just lonely, he's not in love, and Steve tells Billy not to tell him how he feels and they end up arguing. And then they start laughing because, god, they're ridiculous and yeah. Completely, utterly, stupidly in love.

And then they kiss. A lot. And spend the rest of their lives kissing and watching sportsball and drinking beer and fighting over who used the last of the hairspray!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	7. house sitter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My original notes [(originally posted here)](http://gothyringwald.tumblr.com/post/175929383633/haha-i-just-remembered-i-once-entertained-the-idea):
> 
> haha i just remembered i once entertained the idea of a harringrove housesitter AU (yes, the movie with Steve martin and goldie hawn). i didn’t think it through much but:

Steve in the Steve Martin role, so, as an architect (not 100% sure on this but i guess it could fit) who's designed and built this house for himself and his girlfriend, Nancy, back in their hometown. But Nancy isn't ready for the kind of life Steve wants, and, well, they break up. anyway, Steve is heartbroken and also now has this huge empty house and a great big whopping debt. Oops?

And I can 100% see Billy as maybe a bartender, rather than waiter, with con-artist tendencies who hooks up with Steve after he comes into the bar he works at one night and tells Billy his whole story of heartbreak. And Billy thinks that maybe this guy should've asked his girl to marry him _before_ he built them a house but whatever. He's hot. And they have a damn good night together.

Anyway, Billy gets evicted, and he's kinda low on cash, but he remembers the guy he took home going on and on about that house he built for his girlfriend but then she broke up with him and he didn't want to live there alone so it's just sitting there. Completely empty. And if that guy isn't going to live in it just because his girlfriend broke up with him, well, Billy isn't going to be a chump, too. Why not go squat in it a while? Just until he gets back on his feet.

But, of course, the guy had to be from one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone so when, on a whim, he charges some groceries to Steve Harrington's account people are _curious_. He decides why not scandalise these smalltown folk and tells them he's Steve's boyfriend. Except, the people at the general store (and, it turns out, like 3/4 of the town) are doing their darnedest to be progressive or some shit and they're just...really welcoming. It's perplexing. At first Billy doesn't like it but he gets used to it. Even Steve's parents who were frosty as fuck at first warm up to Billy. They _like_ him. Sure, they like the fantasy version of himself he's spun to charm them (because, yeah, he wanted to shock them at first but he also doesn't want to get run out of town) but what the fuck ever. He gets to stay in a fancy house and doesn't have to pay for anything.

But then Steve comes back and well, shit.

Steve gets pretty damn angry and, sure, maybe Billy doesn't blame him but it's still annoying. It's not like Steve was even using the house! But then, Steve calms down, thinks about it. He tells Billy this could be a good way to get Nancy back, by making her jealous. Let her see what she's missing out on. (Billy thinks it's a dumb idea but, whatever, the longer Steve doesn't kick him out the better, really). And, so, the charade goes on.

Anyway, of course, Steve eventually realises he likes this lie he and Billy are living, that he likes _Billy_. A lot. (Plus, Steve wants Nancy to be happy and she wouldn't have been happy with him). And Billy, well, Billy likes it, too. (Which...what the fuck? He likes being all settled down in some backwater town??) And is maybe just a little a lot in love with Steve. And then they live happily ever after the end.

~~I'm sorry.~~

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a few other headcanon/not!fic type posts but I'm not sure if I want to post them here or not. So I might be done for now :) I still have a bunch of actual ficlets to post here too D:


End file.
